New abuse law won’t apply to Con­fes­sion

LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)
Scottish Daily Express [Glasgow, Scotland]

August 16, 2026

By Tony Whitefield, Sunday Express

VICARS and priests who hear about child sex abuse dur­ing Con­fes­sion will not have a duty to report it under new laws com­ing into force next year.

The Crime and Poli­cing Act intro­duces a man­dat­ory report­ing oblig­a­tion to those work­ing or volun­teer­ing with chil­dren in faith set­tings.

While the Home Office said “there will be no excep­tions based on reli­gious prac­tices”, the seal of Con­fes­sion will not be covered.

The seal is the priest’s oblig­a­tion under canon law to hear a per­son’s Con­fes­sion in com­plete con­fid­ence.they can­not repeat or dis­close what is said.

Tra­di­tion­al­ists called for this to be main­tained, while man­dat­ory report­ing without reli­gious excep­tion was one of the key recom­mend­a­tions in the final report of the Inde­pend­ent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in 2022.

Bishop Robert Sprin­gett, lead for safe­guard­ing, told the Gen­eral Synod last month it was “clear that Con­fes­sion is not a ‘reg­u­lated activ­ity’ as defined by the newly passed Police and Crime Act, and so the respons­ib­il­ity is firmly in our court”. He said he was “acutely aware that the con­tin­ued use of the seal is seen by many as fatally under­min­ing our cred­ib­il­ity in our com­mit­ment to man­dat­ory report­ing, indeed it under­mines the view for many of the sin­cer­ity of our com­mit­ment to safe­guard­ing itself”.

The Makin report into sexual abuse by the late John Smyth “shone a light on those who covered

‘Our com­mit­ment to man­dat­ory report­ing must take pre­ced­ent’

up abuse and like it or not the seal is seen by many in that same light”, he said.

He added: “This has led me to con­clude that our com­mit­ment to man­dat­ory report­ing must take pre­ced­ent.”

A Church of Eng­land spokes­per­son said: “Our Man­aging Alleg­a­tions safe­guard­ing code, intro­duced Septem­ber 2025, is very clear that dis­clos­ures of abuse must be repor­ted but with a pas­toral and com­pas­sion­ate response so that all vic­tims and sur­viv­ors who come for­ward are sup­por­ted.

“The spe­cific issue of the seal… is com­ing back to the House of Bish­ops in Octo­ber, now we know the gov­ern­ment pos­i­tion that the Bill does not cover the seal.”

The House of Bish­ops will con­sider the ques­tion at their next meet­ing but will not reach a decision.

The Cath­olic Church said it is await­ing offi­cial guidelines as to how the law on man­dat­ory report­ing will be applied to spe­cific activ­it­ies.

A Cath­olic Bish­ops’ Con­fer­ence of Eng­land and Wales spokes­per­son said: “Abuse has no place in the Church or wider soci­ety, and we have a zero­tol­er­ance approach to it.

“It is the policy of the Cath­olic Church in Eng­land and Wales to report all alleg­a­tions of abuse to stat­utory author­it­ies, regard­less of when the abuse is said to have occurred (recent or non-recent), whether the per­son accused is liv­ing or deceased, and the con­text in which the con­cern arises.

“Report­ing is a man­dat­ory require­ment for all Church per­son­nel – clergy, reli­gious, employ­ees and volun­teers.”

From the Sunday Express via PressReader